Surprise Party
by Izzu
Summary: Ultraman Orb. Naomi would never have expected for the party to turn up like this.
1. Surprise

Naomi sighed to herself, as she glanced towards the clock on the wall. _Where's Mama?,_ she wondered. She sighed. _What a downer_ , and Mama was the one who suggested the New Year party...

Naomi turned her head towards the other corner of the room, where her uncle, Tetsuko, Shin and Jetta were enjoying themselves, taking their turns with the karaoke machine. She checked on her wristwatch again. _Aaah... who'll end up paying for all this later, I wonder_ , she mused alone.

Just as she thought about it, someone suddenly came barging into the room. "Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaii, sorry to make you wait!"

Naomi immediately turned around to greet her mother. "Mama, what took you so long—"

Yumeno Keiko ignored her daughter as she suddenly realised she was missing something. And started walking out again, seemingly looking for something. Or _someone_. Naomi tried to get her mother to notice her again. "Mama? What're you doing?"

Her mother kept making a face at her before catching sight of what she's looking for. She immediately rushed towards the corner of the corridor outside of the room before Naomi could stop her. When her mother returned shortly after, Naomi was caught by surprise as her mother seemed to be dragging _another person_ with her.

"Mama! What are you—?"

Her mother paused in her action, before turning around and grinning at her. "I expect that you won't be inviting so many people to the party, so I took the privile—" Keiko turned her attention towards the person she was dragging along as she scolded him, "—now, now... don't YOU be running off from me again. I told you that you're coming with me and you're NOT going to spend this night alone by yourself!"

When her mother finally managed to get the other person inside, Naomi could barely contain her surprise.

"Juggler-san!" she cried out. Without thinking, Naomi rushed forward to hug the man. Juggler's body tensed at the unexpected welcome.

"Na-Naomi-chan!"

Naomi hastily pulled away from Juggler before turning around. Her uncle, Shibukawa Ittetsu were looking at them warily as he pulled his gun out. Shin and Jetta also turned to stare at them fearfully as Tetsuko continued singing, totally unaware of the sudden tense situation behind her. Naomi hurriedly wrapped her arm around Juggler's. Unbeknownst to her, her mother also did the same on Juggler's other arm.

"What're you doing, Ittetsu-chan?" her mother suddenly spoke, releasing Juggler's arm and walking towards Ittetsu. "It's not _polite_ to treat your guest like this," Keiko turned around towards her daughter, "What's his name again... Jagu? Jugglar?"

Naomi and Juggler nodded their heads towards her awkwardly as Keiko addressed her brother again. "On my way here, I saw this young man _alone_ at a coffee shop. I couldn't stand leaving him by himself after seeing that. No one should be alone at a time like this, so I took him along. Now _you_ don't treat _my guest_ like some kind of a criminal—!"

Ittetsu stuttered. "B-b-but Nee-chan! T-that guy—!" Her uncle turned his head helplessly towards her as Naomi frantically shook her head at him.

 _'It's okay, Uncle! It'll be all right!'_ Naomi mouthed at her uncle as Ittetsu put away his gun. Keiko immediately hurried over to her brother before Ittetsu could even try to approach Juggler again.

Naomi heard a loud sigh as she turned to look at Juggler. The man was staring that her arms holding his right arm tightly as Naomi hastily let go.

"Err... so you're alive!" Naomi started to say as Juggler nodded.

"Of course. It'll be another hundred years before Gai could even _try_ to kill me. As if I could let him have the chance."

Naomi let out a small chuckle before turning to look at her mother. She shrugged. "Sorry about Mama. She tends to do things without thinking, _most_ of the times..."

Juggler sighed again. "Yeah... well, it's not like I don't already know about that—"

Naomi smiled. Even in the dim lights, she could tell that Juggler wasn't really displeased to be forced to come here. In fact, he doesn't seem to be any different than any normal—Suddenly, the door to the karaoke room opened again as another familiar man walked in. Almost right away, Juggler _ran_ towards the other corner of the room.

"Gai-san!" Naomi called out as Gai walked straight towards Keiko and Ittetsu.

"Juggler!" Gai exclaimed, as said person was now hiding behind Naomi's mother. "What're you doing? Shibukawa-san, did Juggler caused any trouble here?"

Ittetsu was about to say something before Juggler walked up towards him, looking very annoyed.

"What did you mean _I_ caused any trouble? Why do you always _assume_ that _I'll_ be up to something bad?"

"Because you always do—"

"Unfortunately for you, this time you're wrong!"

Naomi placed a hand on Gai's arm. "He's right, Gai-san. This time, it's Mama who—"

"But Naomi, I can't guarantee you in case anything else happened. It'll be better if I—"

"I _refuse_!" Gai turned his face towards Juggler as the man pursed his lips. "Rather than me having to hang around with _you_ on the assumption that you're babysitting _me_ out of trouble for some kind of reason, I preferred to stay with _Mama_ here, _ne_?" chirped Juggler as he cocked his head affectionately towards Keiko.

Keiko grinned before petting Juggler's head fondly, with Ittetsu barely showing his disapproval at them. "I _know_ that you'd finally turn around for me. Told you it'd be good for you to socialise with people once a while..." she turned towards Gai. "And now _you_ , don't be a spoilsport... Gai-kun. It's still too _early_ to leave the party and the countdown hasn't started yet. Now Jag-kun, you must already be hungry... I dragged you so suddenly earlier you've barely eaten, come!"

Gai just stared dumbly towards the two, as Keiko led Juggler towards the food table. Turning towards Naomi, he noticed that she too was taken aback by what she just saw. Shaking his head, Gai could only look back towards Juggler... who now seemed to be very at home with Keiko.

"M-Mama?" he stuttered, still couldn't believe that Juggler just called Naomi's mother as 'Mama'.

* * *

This crack popped up randomly while I was watching Saga ep 2. And somehow I felt that Keiko would get along with Juggler just fine..


	2. Party

"Nyaaan!"

Gai was still eyeing Juggler in disbelief, seeing the man sitting happily beside Keiko and Tetsuko... looking _far_ from remotely dangerous (but looks could deceive!).

"Here, have another..." cooed Keiko, as she fed Juggler with another piece of fried chicken. Gai couldn't believe his eyes at what he's seeing, as his _friend_ obediently ate what was given to him like a child. And was Juggler—was it just him... or did Juggler's looking slightly drunk there? He immediately checked the table. There were some bottles of what _looked_ like soda... but some of the brands weren't the ones he's familiar with. If some of them were _alcoholic_...

Gai suddenly became aware of someone poking his sides as he turned towards Naomi.

"Err... Gai-san, is this... okay? Should we just leave Juggler-san with them like this?"

He cocked his head, unsure. "Unh... not sure. I never saw him like this before, I'm not even sure what even he's capable of at this state."

"Ne... Gai-san..."

Gai and Naomi turned towards Jetta, who was hiding behind the couch... with Shin frantically typings things on his laptop. _Not sure what exactly was it that Shin was fussing about on the laptop._

"...don't you think we should do something about that guy? Isn't he... _dangerous_?"

Gai turned his glances back towards Juggler, as he watched Tetsuko trying to coax the man to sing with her at the karaoke.

"Well..." he started speaking absent-mindedly, "... don't be too hasty. That guy... doesn't seem so dangerous right now. And... for some reason, I feel like that guy won't be pulling any funny stuff anytime soon with Keiko-san around..."

Jetta gave Gai a strange look as Naomi slowly nodded her head. "Yeah, now that you said it... even last time Juggler-san seemed _subdued_ when he's with Mama."

Both of them kept staring awestruck towards Juggler as Naomi spoke again. "Does Juggler-san... missed his _mama_?"

Gai blinked as he tried to process what he just heard before turning to look at Naomi and then back to Juggler.

"I... I can't be sure if I can _even_ confirm or refute that statement..."

xxx

"Three... Two... One... Happy New Year!"

Everyone started cheering and popping some party poppers that they almost forgot about Juggler's presence. Gai took the chance to sit beside Juggler on the couch as the rest of the humans were busy partying amongst themselves.

"Juggler... what're you planning?" he asked, taking a firm hold of Juggler's arm.

Juggler frowned and made a face at Gai, before trying to scoot away from him. "Get off, you're annoying me!", he hissed as Gai refused to let go.

"Juggler!" intoned Gai as Juggler pouted.

"Piss off already!" Juggler hissed again, shaking his arm free of Gai's grip. "I wasn't planning anything! That woman's mama saw me by chance and suddenly dragged me here. It's not like I _wanted_ to be here."

Gai's expression did not change as Juggler added. "But _yes_ , between you and that Mama... I'll definitely choose Mama. You're no fun! After thousands of—wait, tens... hundreds?" Juggler started making calculations with his fingers before shoving his hands in front of Gai's face. "—well, _years_... I'm tired of seeing your bloody... nose... face... everything! If you think you gonna get me to join you on your _road trip_ again, sorry to say... I'm gonna refuse you!"

Gai found himself at loss for words before Tetsuko-chan suddenly came running over towards Juggler.

"Jag-chan! Do you want to see the fireworks? The second round was about to start anytime soon...!"

"Fireworks?" Juggler asked blankly as Keiko started pulling him up to his feet.

"Don't tell me you never taken a time for yourself to watch a fireworks display—come, Mama gonna show you what you've been missing..." said Keiko before she and Tetsuko dragged the man towards the side windows.

Gai continued staring at the three as even _Tetsuko_ started taking a liking towards Juggler.

"I'm leaving this to you... Gai-kun!" Gai turned around to see Ittetsu looking totally drunk. "Those two girls totally _outnumbered_ me... Gai-kun, let's fight back!"

Gai could only gape at him in awe as Ittetsu collapsed onto the couch right after, out cold.


	3. Laid Bare

Gai watched the scene in front of him warily. This... shouldn't be good. He needed to do something. Well, considering that everyone _else_ besides Naomi and him was still clueless about the current situation, it might not be so bad.

Juggler was drunk. No, he was truly, in every sense of that wording... _really_ drunk. Then again, so did most of the people inside this room.

It was a right move he did earlier, telling Naomi to help him get everyone back home after the party. They managed to wake Shibukawa up again, get Keiko-san, Tetsuko... everyone else to head back home. Even Juggler, because he can't exactly leave _him_ out.

But then on the way home, Shin for some reason decided to buy a few more cans of beer for himself and the 'party' resumed again back at the SSP base. And somehow, _at least_ one can from that particular stash found its way to Juggler.

"Waahh, Mama... you really have an interesting fortune here!"

Gai shook his head. Somehow now, Juggler had taken out his stack of monster cards and started a small fortune reading session. Keiko and Tetsuko didn't take any notice on the cards used... and assumed they were just a peculiar version of the usual _tarot cards_ they've seen before. Shin and Jetta were initially wary of the cards but then started to join along when some of the readings Juggler did, ended up quite accurate. Yet, despite that... Gai couldn't help being cautious.

Keiko started to laugh as Juggler told her of his reading of her fortune. Gai silently eyed him as Tetsuko picked up one of the cards from the stack that Juggler set aside.

"Whoa! This card is pretty..." she exclaimed. Tetsuko gave the card to Juggler as he nodded his head.

"Aah... Chaos Header!" Juggler drunkenly cocked his head towards Tetsuko. "I actually had another card with this guy in it as well."

He grabbed his deck and quickly sift through the cards before taking one out. Juggler placed the two cards side by side in front of Tetsuko, as Gai walked closer to take a look. Indeed both cards were that of Chaos Header, but one showing its shining form while the other showing its monstrous form.

"Your fortune reading result would change drastically if you _just_ change one of these cards into the other. Of course, so far I've never pulled these two cards at the same time when doing a reading, so I'm not even sure what would happen when I finally do—"

Keiko glanced up as she noticed Gai looming over them. "Eh, Gai-kun? Do you want your fortunes read too? Come, sit over here..."

Juggler immediately started to shake his head vigorously at Keiko. "No, Mama... don't call him over here. He's no good... and he's not into these kinda things anyway," He started pouting again as he clung to Naomi's mother. "Mama... do you know? That guy... is always very annoying. He never listens to others... and always did _everything_ as he liked. Isn't he the type of guy you _just_ can't seem to like?"

"Hmm... now that you said it, I seem to remember—"

Juggler didn't even wait for Keiko to finish her words. "Mama! There's also this one time when we're supposed to send this kid home, and you know happen? I told him that it might be dangerous and he—!"

Seeing that Juggler seem to almost about to start talking nonsense, Gai hastily dragged him away from the groupie and out towards the roof.

xxx

When Naomi saw Gai taking Juggler out, she was almost afraid that they would immediately leave. But then Gai started to head towards the roof as she followed behind.

At the rooftop, Naomi silently watching the two of them as Gai pushed Juggler away.

"What? Did you have a problem with anything I said just now?" Juggler snapped as he turned to face Gai. "It's true after all. You NEVER listen to anything I've ever said to you and you're _always_ been doing things as you like!"

"What do you mean I never listened to you? I _did_ listen to you a number of times. I did _depend_ on you many times before!"

Juggler gave him a look of disbelief. "Oh really? A number of times don't mean _most_ or all the time! You told me _before_ that I should be your _support_ , to help you out from the sides when you need it. But all those times before, have you ever... _really_ taken my words of advice _seriously_? When I told you to be _careful_... when I told you to be mindful of the things you do or say, did you ever _listen_ to them? NO! Because unlike you, I'm not an _Ultraman!_ You just decide everything by yourself! You didn't even ask me if I'm fine about it! You just go on your merry ways regardless of what my opinion was. Am I your supporter, your friend... or am I just your _servant?_ "

"Juggler... that—!"

Naomi tried to step closer to see Gai having a pained look on his face. She turned to look at Juggler, who—to her surprise—had started to cry.

"Do you even realise how much of the things you did in the past have _hurt_ me? Whenever you _brushed_ me aside and rush _blindly_ into danger without thinking. When you paid more heed to the words spoken by your predecessors than me... whom you've known for much longer! As if my words hold _less weight_ compared to them. When you deem my concerns to be so lowly compared to you who's been _chosen by the light_... did you ever stop to think about how your thoughtless words and actions have hurt people? Were you even aware how people have been treating you—treating _me_ , who've been by your side— _differently_ just because you're Orb?"

He giggled. "All these might sound a bit petty to hold a grudge over for so long, I don't really get bothered by it at first. But try getting it over and over and over—it'll start to get to you after a while. And then the darkness would seem too sweet to push away,"

Juggler cocked his head at Gai before twirling around and skipping towards the edge of the roof. He stared downwards towards the ground below as he muttered aloud. "I wonder I could just die if I fall from here and did nothing? That seemed to be an interesting notion..."

"Juggler... don't!"

Naomi turned her eyes to see Gai looking so worried as Juggler was standing unstably on the edge of the ledge. She also couldn't help noticing that Juggler's eyes started to droop. He must have started feeling drowsy after all the alcohol intake.

"Juggler-san!" Naomi started to cry out. "Please step away from the ledge! It's dangerous!"

"Hmm?" Juggler turned his head towards her, dreamily. "Why?"

"Because I don't like it!" she started to say, frantically trying to think up things to say to get Juggler away from the ledge. "Also, Mama... Tecchan! They would be sad if you get hurt!"

Juggler stared at her blankly. "Mama?" he started to say. But then there was a sudden gust of winds and Juggler started to sway and Naomi started to scream and closed her eyes!

She could hear the sound of a clay pot breaking. Was there any other sound besides _that_? Did Juggler-san fell?

Naomi was almost afraid to open her eyes.

"I'm sorry..."

She finally braved herself to open her eyes and look up towards the corner of the ledge. Juggler was no longer standing there but a meter from it, Gai was kneeling on the ground... in tears. He was holding the now unconscious Juggler in his arms. Naomi slowly approached the two.

"Sorry... I didn't realise how much you've been hurt..." Gai continued to whisper into Juggler's ear.

She let out a long sigh before recalling a conversation she used to have with Juggler. Naomi shrugged.

"Back then, when Juggler-san took me away... he said something to me." Gai glanced up towards her. "He forgot what was it that bothered him about you. Perhaps... all these times, Juggler-san had been harbouring these resentments inside himself for so long that he _forgot_ about it. But even when he didn't remember, the darkness kept on eating inside him until he couldn't see the light—!"

"A hole inside his heart..." he softly said it to himself, recalling the exchange they have during the day Magata no Orochi ran amok. Gai glanced back towards Juggler as he held his body tighter. "It's my fault. I've been so overwhelmed with my new responsibilities and duties... that I don't really pay attention to the things around me anymore. Not like how I used to. Before all these started."

"Perhaps now... you can finally be able to patch things up between you two..."

Gai gave her another look. "Ugh... with him? That'll probably only gonna work if he _actually_ allowed me to get close to him," Naomi laughed, as she watched Gai trying to carry Juggler's unconscious body in his arms.

As they head downstairs, Naomi smiled. Well, the party didn't turn out as she expected... but at least it did turn out _well_.

* * *

Sorry for the random angst... I can't seem to escape writing them even for my random cracks. That aside, pardon for the random mention of Chaos Header. There's actually quite a few more Cosmos-verse monsters that I could use that could have fit into Juggler's deck... but I liked the duality of Chaos Header having the light/dark elements.

Also, ugh... I need to let Juggler let off some steam somehow.


	4. Omake

When he opened his eyes, he _knew_ right away that something's not right. _What's this... this warm feeling?_ When Juggler turned his head to one side, he saw something that didn't make any sense.

 _Why was..._ Gai _sleeping beside him?_

He frowned, before turning his head towards the ceiling. Now that he thought about it, this place seemed _familiar_. Juggler tried to move his arms and realised that one of them seemed stuck over something. He turned his head back towards the sleeping Gai... and ran his eyes downwards...

 _Why was Gai holding his arms around his so tightly?_ He frowned, before drawing his glance upwards again.

But then he was staring face to face towards a now _awake_ Kurenai Gai and he tried to roll himself away from the bloke and that's when everything else started crashing down on him!

"Aah! My head hurts!" he moaned. His head was spinning as if he'd just got his head out of the eye of a tornado.

Juggler felt someone nudging him around, and guiding him towards a table _just_ at the corner of the room. He turned to see who was it that was helping him only to find that it was still, just _Gai_.

"What's with you suddenly? Why're you being so nice?" he asked warily, as Gai started acting all chummy. As if it's just _natural_ for him to do this for an old friend.

"Don't fuss too much over unnecessary things... here, have some soup. It should clear your head a bit,"

Juggler turned his head to his other side to see Naomi's mother smiling back at him. For some reason, he found that Yumeno Keiko treating him as if he was her _long lost son_ made more sense than Gai being nice to him.

He looked down towards the bowl of soup in front of him and started to have a spoonful of it. Juggler started to smile. _Ah... it's true_ , his head started to clear a bit after he drank the soup. He started to sip some more of it before started being aware of Gai staring at him again.

He started to scoot closer towards Keiko as Juggler glared towards Gai.

xxx

"Come visit again if you can..."

Juggler awkwardly returned the hug as he pulled away from Keiko. "Err, well... see you later!"

"Happy new year!" Naomi called out as he hastily returned the greet.

He was able to walk away a bit faster the more he was further away from the residential area. But then he noticed that he _still_ had a tail that wouldn't give up following him no matter how hard he tried to shake it off! Juggler turned around.

"What is it again!" he cried as Gai walked up to him. "How many times do I have to say no till you get that I'm telling you no?"

"I made up my mind, again. Let's have a new start between us. Can we?"

"What're you high on, Gai? How do think we could ever be able to work things together again? After all these times?"

"We could still try! Nothing's impossible... and I wanted to make it up for you. Can I?"

"Make it up—what're you even talking about?" Juggler frowned as he stared towards Gai's face before sighing. "Fine... I don't have the strength to brush you off already at this time of the day."

"Great!" Gai exclaimed before dragging him again towards another far off destination...

* * *

Because regardless, this piece is still a crack. And it was amusing to think about the aftermath of the drunk confession. In which I might end up tweaking the third chapter even more as the Origin Saga progresses.


End file.
